


Out of the Depths

by 2amEuphoria



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: (you'll see at the end), F/M, I cried writing this, because our boy deserves to think better of himself, but I had to do it, dedicated to someone in my life, it was hard to write, therefore multiple spelling/grammar errors may be abound (sorry)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 01:01:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21638635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2amEuphoria/pseuds/2amEuphoria
Summary: My heart’s been broken since Malcolm said he wasn’t “dad material.” Here’s me fixing that.
Relationships: Malcolm Bright/Dani Powell
Comments: 13
Kudos: 116





	Out of the Depths

**Author's Note:**

> “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”  
> ― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

He’d been here before. Long before he used to take her here.

It wasn’t the grandest park in New York City-all it really had was a swing set and a lot of open space to run around. But he knew that what his daughter loved most was the view of the water.

Or, rather, the chance to threaten him with jumping into it, the way she was now, standing precariously on the concrete edge of the park, with one foot almost touching the soft waves. 

“Alea…” he called from the bench he sat on, warning her with his tone. He knew she’d meet nothing but sand and shallow water if she did “accidentally” fall in, but he was more worried about having to explain this “accident” to Dani when he brought her home later. He could hear his wife now, assessing their sopping wet 6-year-old and saying “yeah, she ‘fell’ in, alright…”

“Mommy won’t care!” Alea called back, flashing him that mischievous smile of hers before tapping her foot against the water. Malcolm shook his head at her, and they both laughed at the thought of Dani actually _not_ caring-as if that’d ever happen. 

Alea paused to kneel down at the water’s edge, her curls swirling around her face as she appeared to focus in on something in front of her. Even from a few feet away he could see her eyebrows furrow as she stared intently at whatever she was curious about. She looked so much like Dani whenever she had that look on her face-a true detective, like her mother before her.

She leapt back onto her feet, turning to face him. “There’s a really cool rock over there! It’s super shiny; it looks like a dog tag!”

“Oh yeah?” Malcolm replied, suddenly curious himself. But then he discovered her finding was actually a ruse to get his attention, because she hopped into the water, soaking her school skirt. He saw her mouth “uh-oh” and then shrug unapologetically in his direction.

He ran a hand over his face to hide his amusement. “Oh, kiddo, you kill me,” he called out to her. Alea giggled.

He heard footsteps in the grass behind him, but kept his eyes on his daughter as she waded around in the water. “Mine’s the one being a troublemaker,” he said to the stranger behind him, chuckling.

“Oh, I know! She’s mine, too.”

 _Ooh, shit._ Malcolm’s eyes widened, and he swallowed- his expressions reminiscent of a scene out of a cartoon movie. In the distance, he saw Alea hop out of the water and back onto the grass. They shared a look of _“well, we’re doomed now”_ before he craned his neck back to see Dani smiling down at him, fingernails rapping against the cup of coffee in her hand.

Malcolm looked at Dani. Dani looked at Malcolm, and then at Alea. Alea met Dani’s gaze for half a second before looking back at her father and shouting “Daddy, I really did find that cool rock! Come see it!” She waved him over before gingerly stepping back into the water, being _very_ careful not to make eye contact with her mother as she did.

Malcolm looked up at Dani with a look that conveyed _"what can I do, ignore her?"_ before getting up and jogging off to the water's edge. 

“So we’re really at the ‘good cop/bad cop’ stage of parenting now, huh?” She shouted after him.

“Ah, but remember, _I’m_ the only one of us who's _not_ a cop!” he remarked, pausing to take off his shoes before jumping in with both feet, splashing himself and Alea. The 6 year-old busted into a fit of giggles. 

Looking for rocks seemed to be the last thing Dani saw them doing. They were too preoccupied looking at things they saw in the sand-that is, until Alea splashed her dad’s face, causing him to splash hers in return, causing Alea to run off down the shoreline and Malcolm to chase after her. 

“Um, you two, this isn’t the beach...!” Dani tried to get their attention as Malcolm finally caught up to Alea. He playfully growled “gotcha!” and scooped her up. Alea shrieked and messed up his hair as he swung her over his shoulder. They were both cracking up as they turned to look back at Dani.

“Why can’t it be the beach, though?” Malcolm panted, laughing harder when Dani shook her head at them.

“You’re an enabler, Malcolm Bright, I hope you know that.” He made a face and shrugged in response, mimicking Alea’s iconic gesture. Alea covered her mouth to stifle her cackling.

Dani put her coffee cup down on the bench and marched back to her car, only a few feet away. “I think we’re really in for it now, Ambs,” Malcolm whispered to Alea, using the nickname they’d given her long before she was born, “Ambs,” for her initials: Alea Margaret Bright.

Malcolm carried Alea back towards the bench, still laughing with her as they assessed how soaked they were. “Mommy’s really mad, I think,” Alea declared as she watched her mother open the trunk of her car forcefully. “If she is, I’ll take it,” Malcolm replied, and the two high-fived. 

They were confused, however, when they saw Dani returning to the bench with two huge picnic blankets under her arms, and a devious smile on her face. 

“What are those for?” Malcolm asked when both parties finally reached each other. He set Alea down and she instantly hugged his leg, still trying to assess whether her mother was actually upset with their escapades.

Dani slapped both blankets down on the bench before turning back to them, her smile even wider now. “You guys aren’t sitting in my car like _that._ ” She gestured to the state of their clothes. “You need to dry off first. So, strip off. Pants, skirt, socks... Wrap yourself up as you do it, and then you can stay like that in the blankets until you’re both dry. And don’t worry, we have _plenty_ of time.”

“But, Momma-” Alea started. Dani shot her a high-browed look.

“Dani, you can’t be serious-”

“Oh, but I am. Come on, your clothes aren’t going to try any quicker if you keep standing there dripping in them. Have a seat!”

_____________

“I still can’t believe you’re having us do this.”

Dani flashed Malcolm her iconic tight-lipped smile in response, raising her cup in cheers before taking another sip. 

It had been about two hours now that they’d been on this bench-Malcolm and Alea wrapped in blankets from the waist down, Alea under his arm and fast asleep, their clothes discreetly laid out on the bench to dry, and Dani, enjoying every moment as she sat next to them. At one point a mom with two kids in a stroller came jogging by; when she assessed the scene before her, she looked at Dani and complimented her on her “smart idea.” 

“Anything for my two favorite idiots,” she had replied, gesturing to her husband and daughter. Alea had fallen asleep at that point, leaving Malcolm the only one awake to cast his eyes down in shame.

To Dani’s credit, their clothes _were_ drying, and it hadn’t been all that bad sitting on the bench together trying to pass the time. They played the most competitive games of “I Spy” and “I’m Thinking of a Number” Malcolm had ever been a part of before; Alea clearly inherited Dani’s persistence on winning, because the two battled far too long over whether there actually had been a squirrel on “ _that_ tree- not that one Momma, I meant _that_ one over there; Daddy, you see it, right? _Right_ ?” Eventually, a combination of the sun’s glow and today’s misadventure had tired Alea out, so she tucked herself under her father’s arm for a nap.

Malcolm remembered again the first time he’d been to this park, long before Alea was born, even before he and Dani admitted their feelings for each other. It had been years ago-half a lifetime, it seemed-when he came here, unannounced, to speak to a man involved in a case they’d been working on. He’d forgotten the man’s name now, but not how he watched his daughter playing on the swings to avoid Malcolm’s impromptu interrogation. Just when Malcolm felt like he was getting the information he needed, another parent interrupted them, leaning around his suspect to ask “which one’s yours?”

“Oh, I don’t have kids,” Malcolm had responded, a little shocked that he’d been asked such a question. He backpedaled, adding a reason to his answer: “tricky childhood, not really dad material. Also, I’m wildly dependent on benzos, so…” He made a face and rolled his eyes.

He let out a breathless chuckle as he thought of this now.

“What?” Dani asked, bringing him back to reality. “What’s so funny? Well, aside from grown-ass you being punished for getting you and your daughter soaking wet from playing around in the water.”

He shook his head, laughing harder now. “No- no, although that is pretty funny. I was thinking about the first time I came to this place, actually. Remember that BDSM case we worked a while back-dead guy who wasn’t from the family dead in the husband and wife’s bedroom, and the wife was a part of that whole community?” Dani nodded.

“I tracked him down here once. He was watching his daughter play with some other kids on the swings. As I was trying to get something, anything out of him, another mom asked me which one of the kids was mine.” 

Dani raised an eyebrow. “And?” She inquired.

Malcolm smiled, rubbing his eyes- even he was starting to get tired now, too. “I said I didn’t have any. Went off on a whole rant about how my “tricky childhood” and “benzo dependency” didn’t really make me dad material.”

When he turned to look at her again, he saw that her expression had changed from humorous to soft and empathetic. 

“Well,” she sighed, her gaze falling on Alea’s form pressed up against him, “I’d have to disagree. You’re dad material if I ever saw it.” She rubbed his arm. “I mean, you act more like your shoe size than your age to begin with; it’s no wonder why she looks to Daddy when I say ‘no.’” 

His eyes crinkled with the way he smiled at that.

She leaned over to kiss his cheek. “You may have had a tricky childhood, and I know it’s hard to deal with even today, but you haven’t made hers tricky in the slightest. I can promise you that. She thinks the world of you, as do I.”

He pulled her close to kiss her back. “Thank you.”

“Of course. You wanna head home? I think you guys are good; we’ve been here a while.”

He eagerly reached for his suit pants and socks. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

They woke Alea up, and though she put her skirt, socks and shoes back on, she still insisted on being carried in the picnic blanket. Malcolm happily agreed, tossing her over his shoulder with an “I call carrying the sack of potatoes!” (which sent Alea into a fit of giggles) and walked hand in hand with Dani to the car.

“Hey Daddy?” He heard Alea whisper over his shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“You, um, forgot your shoes by the water, Daddy.” 

Dani stopped dead in her tracks and shot him a look. He snorted at the face she made. Alea laughed.

“You’re unbelievable.” He _and_ Alea were snickering now as Dani shook her head, beginning to laugh herself. “Go get your shoes, Daddy,” Dani groaned, though the light in her eyes showed she was teasing him.

“We’ll be right back!” Malcolm called as he jogged off. Still over his shoulder, Alea was giggling and waving at her mother.

Dani watched as they made their way to the water’s edge. Malcolm set Alea down, tickling her as he went to put his shoes back on.

“‘Not really dad material,’ you say?” She recalled his words aloud to herself as she watched them. “Nah, Malcolm. Just the opposite.”

**Author's Note:**

> I want to dedicate this to my grandfather. A person with a “tricky childhood” himself, and hardened by years in the military, he thought of himself as “grumpy” when he really was ideal “dad material” (and “grandfather material,” too). The idea for this story came from one of my favorite memories I have of him: he instigated my sister and I splashing each other on the beach (on a day we came without swimsuits) until we were soaked, and my grandmother made us take off our shorts and wrap ourselves in picnic blankets until we were dry enough for the car ride home. I’ll never forget the three of us sitting in beach chairs laughing about the incident while my grandmother and brother stared at us disapprovingly (albeit a little amused). He passed away around this time last year; this past Thursday was my first Thanksgiving without him. He will forever be missed, and forever remembered as someone who made sure his children and grandchildren had better childhoods than he did.


End file.
